by Tom DeWolf | Jan 17, 2020 | News
It’s time to work through the pain of racial healing By Laura Hill “’Healing is a process.’ How many times have we heard this well-meaning cliché? “Last fall these fateful words were uttered by an emergency room physician, after I fell at home...
by Anne Schmidt | Jul 2, 2019 | Working Groups
Reparations Reparations Work is a vital part of Coming to the Table because it provides avenues to impact racial justice directly in the community, whereas our other Groups (i.e. Linked Descendants, Mindfulness, etc.) support very crucial racial healing on more...
by Tom DeWolf | Jun 18, 2019 | News
Phoebe Kilby discovered her ancestors were slave-owners and she wanted to pay reparations. Through an organisation called Coming To The Table, she found her linked descendant Betty Kilby, and asked if they could meet. To watch this video story, go to: Her ancestors...
by Tom DeWolf | Jan 21, 2019 | News
It’s no coincidence that activist Mary Dadone calls Coming to the Table meetings a “12-step program” for racial reconciliation. Jane Carrigan, a co-founder of the Annapolis chapter, has shared with the group her recollection of the white supervisor at her first summer...
by Tom DeWolf | Apr 1, 2016 | News
I did not realize until I was an adult that my ancestors were enslaved. I was born in Chicago in a time greatly influenced by the Civil Rights Movement that was sparked by the lynching of Emmitt Till in 1954 and the refusal of Rosa Parks in 1955 to give up her seat on...
by Tom DeWolf | Jan 31, 2016 | News
“Be prepared to face the truth if you undertake genealogical research,” said Peter Wingate, one of two instructors for a genealogy workshop I attended called “Tracing your family tree to the slave era.” Peter was correct. Until 2013, I was...
by Tom DeWolf | Jan 27, 2016 | News
We children of the South — direct descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman, and Martha Wayles Jefferson, his wife — hold hands at last as brothers and sisters at the edge of a new day in race relations. Our optimism is not born of naiveté....
by Tom DeWolf | Jan 20, 2016 | News
Columbus native Karen Branan has been a journalist for nearly half a century. Her work has appeared in national magazines, major newspapers and on network and cable TV. Living in Washington, D.C., she has covered racial issues from as far away as the Rodney King...
by Tom DeWolf | Aug 12, 2015 | News
Joseph McGill first unrolled bedding in a former slave cabin in 1999. He was participating in a documentary about Civil War re-enactors and the controversy over the Confederate battle flag, and the producers asked Mr. McGill — an African-American museum professional...
by Tom DeWolf | May 23, 2015 | News
We embarked upon a journey to test whether two people could come to grips with deep, traumatic, historic wounds and find healing. We had no idea where we would end up. “I burst into tears in the parking lot of the Lowndes County Interpretive Center in rural...